Sponsorship increases for Idaho New Year's Eve potato drop

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — New York City drops a ball in Times Square when the clock marks New Year's Day, but in downtown Boise, Idaho, a giant potato falls from the sky.

Darin Oswald

FILE--In this Dec. 31, 2014, file photo, Shelby Besler left, and her mother Tracey Besler, smile for a photograph on New Year's Eve as revelers ring in 2015 with the second annual Idaho Potato Drop in downtown Boise, Idaho. The Idaho Potato Commission has upped its sponsorship to $50,000 for the event, where a giant potato drops out of the sky as a countdown to the new year, that's now in its fifth year and keeps gaining more attention. (Darin Oswald/The Idaho Statesman via AP, file)

FILE--In this Dec. 31, 2014, file photo, Shelby Besler left, and her mother Tracey Besler, smile for a photograph on New Year's Eve as revelers ring in 2015 with the second annual Idaho Potato Drop in downtown Boise, Idaho. The Idaho Potato Commission has upped its sponsorship to $50,000 for the event, where a giant potato drops out of the sky as a countdown to the new year, that's now in its fifth year and keeps gaining more attention. (Darin Oswald/The Idaho Statesman via AP, file)

FILE--In this Dec. 31, 2014, file photo, New Year's Eve revelers ring in 2015 with the second annual Idaho Potato Drop in Downtown Boise, Idaho. The Idaho Potato Commission has upped its sponsorship to $50,000 for the event, where a giant potato drops out of the sky for a countdown to the new year, that's now in its fifth year and keeps gaining more attention. (Darin Oswald/The Idaho Statesman via AP, file)

The Idaho Potato Commission, the state agency that promotes and protects the starchy tuber, has upped its sponsorship to $50,000 for the event that's now in its fifth year, the Capital Press reported Wednesday.

Frank Muir, president of the commission, said the visibility for the state's most famous farm item increases every year the potato drops. The commission provided $5,000 during the event's inaugural year, and the offering later increased to $25,000.

"Every time we drop that potato, we get national and international coverage," Muir said. "It's getting more and more legs."

The event attracts about 35,000 people to downtown Boise on New Year's Eve. Dylan Cline, the founder of the event, said the drop has the potential to reach billions of people through major media coverage each year.

"I had no idea it was going to be such a phenomenon around the world," Cline said. "It just keeps growing and getting bigger and drawing more attention around the world."

Cline said the reasoning behind the potato was simply to celebrate the thing that Idaho is best known for.

"Idaho's potato industry is a money maker for the state, and people should get behind it and support it for making the state what it is today," Cline said. "I think it's something we should be proud of."